California Biographies
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176
JOHN HEDBERG, as manager of the Lindsay Citrus Nursery Company, has attained a
prominence in the nursery business of which he may well feel proud. Ever since leaving home
he has had his own way to make in the world, and by industry and economy he has accumulated
a handsome property. A native of Sweden, he was born July 19, 1870. and is a son of Erick
and Annie Hedberg. The father is now engaged in farming in the old country. The mother
bore four children, two of whom are in America.
John Hedberg remained at home until reaching his twenty-first year, when he entered the
Swedish army, remaining in the service one year. At the expiration of that time, in 1891,
he bade good-bye to his home and friends and came to the United States, first locating in
Madison county, Neb., where he remained one year. In 1893 he arrived in California, securing
employment in a vineyard and orchard in Fresno county. Later he entered the employ of Mar-
shall & Wilson, the nurserymen, with whom he continued three years, learning the business
thoroughly. In 1895 he came to Lindsay and was the first to engage in the citrus nursery
business in a commercial way at this place. For four years he continued in the business two
miles from Lindsay, but at the end of this period sold out and purchased eighty acres on the
hill-side three miles northeast of Lindsay. At the time of purchase the land was in stubble, but
Mr. Hedberg lost no time in beginning the improvement of the place. A well was sunk and a
pumping plant installed which now has a capacity of five thousand gallons per hour, enough
to irrigate his orange grove of forty-three acres. Since then he has set out twenty acres to nursery,
containing one hundred and fifty thousand orange trees, being the largest citrus nursery north
of Tehachapi. and in addition has set out other varieties of fruit trees. In the spring of 1905
he set out forty acres more of navel oranges in Round Valley, three miles from his home place,
where he also owns two hundred and sixty acres of citrus land. While most of his time is devoted
to the nursery and horticultural business, Mr. Hedberg has also become interested in several
business enterprises, including the Lindsay Citrus Nursery Company, in which he holds a half
interest ; the Rochdale Association, and the Lindsay Building and Improvement Company, of
which he is a director.
Fraternally he holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, and in politics he supports
the policies of the Republican party, but has never taken a very active interest in the politics
of the county, preferring to devote his whole time to his business. He has met with excellent
success and now has one of the finest nurseries in the entire state. When one considers that
Mr. Hedberg has been in this country but a few years, and that he has never had any assistance,
his success can be fully appreciated. At the same time he has never neglected his duties as
a citizen, and when called upon by his neighbors he has always responded.